Alt-rock icons Muse, are currently on tour in support of their latest album Will of the People. Dominating arenas and stadiums throughout the US and Europe, Muse are well known for delivering massive productions with excellent audio and visual content.
As the band’s FOH engineer for over two decades, Marc Carolan is responsible for keeping the audio quality as high as possible for each show. To that end, Carolan has been employing the Austrian Audio OD505 WL1 Active Dynamic wireless mic capsule for vocals throughout the tour. The OD505 WL1 is an ideal solution for bandmembers who are mobile during their performance and depend on a wireless system. In a host of live situations, ambient sound can cause big problems, but this is where the OD505 capsule shines: the microphone’s supercardioid polar pattern smoothly rejects unwanted interference, putting added focus on the voice.
Monitor engineer Matt Napier, part of Carolan’s team and on his first tour with the group, confirmed this in a recent interview with FOH Magazine: “When Matt [Bellamy] performs in front of the PA, he switches to an Austrian Audio OD505, which has great rejection and keeps the vocal sound as clean as possible.”
On drums, Carolan opted for Austrian Audio’s OC7 True Condenser instrument microphones for Toms, and a CC8 cardioid True Condenser mic on High-hat. Additionally, Austrian Audio’s flagship OC818 large-diaphragm condenser mics are used on percussion.
As an experienced FOH engineer, Carolan always has an eye out for innovative solutions as Muse continue to fill bigger and bigger stadiums around the world: “Muse keeps pushing boundaries, both musically and technologically, and the team and I keep learning and figuring out how to provide the best sound experience for these mega shows.”
